America Online Inc. has filed five separate lawsuits, against more than a dozen different companies and individuals, in an effort to reduce unwanted e-mail solicitations. The papers were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. AOL’s e-mail network is located in Virginia.
AOL is seeking civil penalties, total monetary damages of at least $10 million, and court orders to immediately halt unsolicited messaging from these defendants.
AOL is seeking civil penalties, total monetary damages of at least $10 million, and court orders to immediately halt unsolicited messaging from these defendants. Neither a trial date nor a hearing to determine when a trial might be held have been set, according to AOL spokesperson Nicholas J. Graham.
According to AOL, the defendants are responsible for sending its members more than 1 billion unwanted solicitations (spam), which generated more than 8 million member complaints. Most of the complaints were generated by AOL members using the "Report Spam" button within its e-mail system, according to the company.
The defendants allegedly used a variety of techniques to evade AOL’s anti-spam mechanisms, including false e-mail addresses, took actions to deliberately circumvent the company’s spam filters, and ignored AOL’s "Unsolicited Bulk Email Policy."
Two of the suits were filed against named individuals. One defendant, Michael Levesque of Byte Night LLC, was named in both, while the other, George A. Moore Jr. of Maryland Internet Marketing, was a defendant only in one. Each suit also was filed against a number of John Does affiliated with the respective companies.
Through Byte Night, Levesque allegedly offered access to a number of different adult Web sites, while Moore and Levesque were both named as allegedly advertising a variety of goods, including (but not limited to) computer software and mortgage offers.
The other three lawsuits were filed against a variety of John Does that offered a wide spectrum of products and services, including: cable TV descramblers, pornography, college degrees, male organ growth and enhancement supplements, steroids and home mortgage and refinancing referrals.
The five lawsuits are the first anti-spam legal actions AOL has taken since May 2001. AOL has launched 20 such lawsuits against more than 100 individual and corporate defendants. The company also regularly sends "cease and desist" letters to spammers.
"Spammers take note: you can run, but you can't hide," said Randall Boe, executive vice president and general counsel of AOL, in a statement. "If you spam AOL, we will block you. If you evade our spam filters, we will use our members' complaints to track you down and bring you to court."
